Downfall of a Dragon
by Joeneauxvieve
Summary: We all know that Hanzo was forced to kill his younger brother all those years ago. This is the fight that he never forgave himself for.


**Author's Note: **

**We all know that Hanzo and Genji had a very bloody fight and Hanzo nearly left Genji for dead after that, leading him to become a cyborg. Since we don't know a whole lot about what either of these characters were like before their fight, I decided to put my own spin on it. Honestly, not gonna lie, Hanzo is a little psychotic and Genji is kinda arrogant in this fic, I don't like envisioning these characters like this, but I like to think that this fight changed them both in huge ways (mentally), as hinted at via the shorts, comics, and some in-game dialogue.**

 **Also, after watching the "Dragons" short for the 76th time (pun intended), I studied the fighting styles of Hanzo with his bow and Genji with his katana (longer sword) and wakizashi (shorter sword) since this is a pre-Overwatch/cybernetics time for them. I tried to use the 3 seconds we see Hanzo use the bow like a sword and expand on that as best as I could since he doesn't have his bow yet at this time (or maybe he does, I don't know, the canon for this game is all over the place). I don't know how well this will turn out, but I guess we'll see, won't we?**

 **WARNING! The following story contains violence, gore and major bleeding. The rating will remain T, but don't read if you are sensitive to these things!**

* * *

Hanzo had Genji in his sights. He was at too far of a range for his younger brother to sense him, but he had to be stealthy if he was going to fulfil his duty as quickly as possible. He followed Genji into the temple which, quite frankly, was one of the last places he wanted to spill blood on. Perhaps if he was lucky enough, he'd be able to kill him by snapping his neck and finish the task instantly.

He silently climbed up onto the roof of his family temple, waiting for Genji to complete his rituals and offerings to the dragon spirits and then walk out of the door where the grass could absorb blood, should there be any. The wind picked up from a light breeze to a quiet whistling. His hair swayed slightly in front of his face in tune with it. Yet, this wasn't a typical partially windy evening. His stomach tightened with a sickening pain as his dragon stirred restlessly. The same small voice in the depths of his mind was telling him that what he was going to do was just… No.

Hanzo smothered the thought even further back in his brain. He had to do this. For the empire. For the clan.

Genji was no longer one of them. He had disobeyed their father, disrespected the elders, taken advantage of nearly every young woman in the clan. His recklessness would be the downfall of everything their family name stood for. He was given countless chances to redeem himself, and he either didn't see it or outright refused it. That left Hanzo with only one choice.

He had to die.

After patiently waiting on the roof for what seemed to be longer than it actually was, Genji finally exited the temple. He held the offering bowls and incense in his right hand and used his left to release the wakizashi buckled to his lower back from its sheath. He headed for the forest, clearing any and all foliage blocking his path with the two-foot blade.

Hanzo silently made his way down and followed his brother. His footsteps made such little sound that it was silenced by the time it got to Genji's ears. Hanzo stopped in his tracks when Genji did, his right hand gripping the brown and gold hilt of his katana. He didn't want to alert his presence to him just yet. He figured an ambush-style attack would be most efficient to vanquish his disgrace of a little brother from the face of the earth. He was about to find a way to higher ground, but he stopped himself when Genji spoke in an all too calm tone for the given situation.

"I know why you're here," he placed the bowl and tray at the base of a tree he was standing in front of. "I know what the clan thinks of me. I know you feel the same way as they do. Yet..."

Genji purposefully trailed off and turned around to face his enraged brother. Hanzo mentally rolled his eyes. Genji was always one for drama and suspense, and it has been wearing at his nerves for almost twenty years, now.

"I will not lie, I was rather disappointed that you did not defend me," Genji's voice was starting to fill with anger and become amplified in volume. He shifted his hold on the wakizashi into a backhand grip, and his right hand reached for the katana strapped diagonally across his back. He raised it up a few inches, revealing a bright green beam of light emanating from the blade, accompanied by a flowing mist of the same color, showing that Genji was prepared to let his dragon fly and hunt of its own accord at any moment. A flash of the same hue appeared in Genji's deep brown eyes as they seemed filled with determination and fury.

"It will take more than just sneaking to kill me, Hanzo."

The older's patience had finally worn out. He'd put up with Genji's taunting and one-sided teasing for nearly as long as he can remember. He fully drew his own sword and proceeded to lunge towards his brother as he let out a battle cry and swung his katana downwards. Genji deflected the attempted strike with ease and followed it with a swiping motion to Hanzo's neck and a stabbing motion towards his brother's arm. Hanzo dodged both and propelled his blade horizontally through the air in his brother's direction as Genji went for a kick to Hanzo's abdomen.

The sound of metal slicing through flesh echoed in the air for a fraction of a second, only to be followed with a sight and feeling much worse as Genji looked down.

A deep gash had found a home in his lower calf. The fabric of the pant leg around the sliced area was barely hanging on, maybe a few stitches. A thick stream of blood began pouring out of the injury. He had heavily miscalculated the speed of his brother's attack. He glanced at his brother's face, Hanzo's teeth bared in anger and eyes seething with rage. He kept his face from showing any pain or anger, knowing full well it would only make him seem weak.

Thankfully, he had managed to put some distance between himself and his brother as he landed. Genji made a break for the temple, running as fast as he could with his limp.

* * *

Hanzo briefly glanced at the dark red liquid trailing down his katana, and a small surge of triumph filled him before following his brother's bloody footprint trail out of the forest.

He ran in pursuit of his brother. Every system in his body was racing with adrenaline. He passed through the courtyard, but his brother was nowhere to be seen. He entered the temple only to find that it was void of any living souls as well.

Hanzo stood in the center of the entrance of the temple. He inhaled deeply, closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. The only sound that filled his ears was the wind which practically roared at this point. The tapestry that stood forty meters from the cherry blossom tree was rippling as the wind manipulated it. Hanzo gripped the bloodied sword tighter in his hand, waiting for his dragon to give him insight on where its brother would be.

His eyes opened as he broke out of his self-transcendence and snapped his head upwards as the distinct sound of fabric being torn apart flew threw the air. Hanzo silently made his way to one of the large paper lanterns framing the entrance, where the source of the sound came from. He brought his katana into the ready position over his shoulder and quickly made his way to the other side of it, ready to confront his brother. Genji was still nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Genji had the upper hand now. He was always more swift than his older brother, and while his leg may be slowing him down now, he was still much faster than Hanzo.

Hanzo may have been skilled enough to please the empire and his father with his samurai abilities, but anything that Hanzo could do with a blade, Genji was almost always better at it.

Almost.

* * *

Hanzo pivoted sharply on his feet, shifting his body position 180 degrees just as Genji attempted to attack him again. He was deeply annoyed at his little brother, but wasn't surprised at his actions: first critiquing Hanzo on how sneaking wouldn't work on him and then trying the same tactic himself. Genji could be a real pain in the ass sometimes.

Alright, most of the time.

Genji swished his katana upwards to deflect Hanzo's counter-attack. A high-pitched shing rung in the air as the metal of the long, sharp weapons collided. A few sparks were created as a result, only to vanish as soon as they came into existence. Hanzo forced Genji's blade downwards at a nearly idle rate, but it was clear the younger was struggling under his brother's strength combined with his still-open wound, barely allowing him to stand. It was bandaged now. The dark fabric that was dangling off of his pant leg earlier was now wrapped tightly around his injury. Unfortunately for Genji, it didn't do a whole lot to stop the bleeding since the small patch of ripped material was already past its maximum absorption, and more blood trailed down his ankle and into his shoe as well as onto the temple floor.

The edge of Hanzo's blade was a hair's distance away from Genji's nose. Then the skin was broken, and it went deeper until the edge was touching bone. Genji summoned another bout of strength as he tried to put distance between his brother's sword and his face, but Hanzo's arms wouldn't budge.

Hanzo changed the angle of his katana against Genji's. Now Genji had two equally deadly swords growing nearer to his bloody face once again. The edges of both weapons touched and broke the skin for the second time, but now on both his cheeks and near his eyes. Genji managed to slip out of his position with a hard, painful kick to Hanzo's shoulder. Without hesitating, Genji flourished his sword and maneuvered it through the air as he summoned his dragon and commanded it to charge at his brother.

"Ryujin No Ken O Kurae!"

The tip of his green and silver katana was aimed at his brother and the dragon obeyed his master's silent command. It roared furiously and sprinted at Hanzo with the same angry fire in its eyes that Genji possessed. Hanzo narrowed his expression and tightened his grip on the sweaty hilt of his own sword.

Genji had officially gone rogue. Using the power of his dragon against his own kin was the last thing he would have done when the two of them were allies. Hanzo, however, knew exactly how to respond to this.

"Ryu Ga Waga Teki Wo Kurau!"

He held his katana over his head and directed the edge of it to Genji. Two translucent dragons, both as blue as Sea of Japan at sunrise, materialized out of the blade and glowed brightly. They charged at the incoming green dragon that Genji had summoned and directed it away from Hanzo. He commanded his dragons to lead the green one away from him and back to the younger of the two.

Genji braced himself for the impact of his dragon. He felt his feet scrape against the floor of the temple as he was pushed backwards by the brute force. He grunted as he tried to resist its power, feeling his energy being quickly drained from him. The attack only seeming to grow stronger as it progressed. He dropped to his knees, then collapsed on his side as he huffed in order to regain his breath.

Hanzo marched to his brother's limp body and picked him up by the collar. He drew his arm back, prepared to launch his brother across the room when his brother spoke in a half-taunt.

"You're regretting this, aren't you, brother?"

Hanzo proceeded to throw his brother towards the tapestry which still flailed heavily in the chilling wind. Genji grunted again as his body crashed to the wooden floor a few meters in front of it. He attempted to lift himself up, but was too weak to lift his torso more than five inches. Hanzo swung his weapon down again. Genji was only able to establish a weak block that Hanzo easily broke through, causing him to place another deep cut across Genji's neck and chest. The elder of the two then swished it horizontally, giving Genji a fresh wound spanning down his left arm that would no doubt leave multiple scars, should Hanzo decide to leave him alive. He struck his brother again, this time across his face, starting from his lips and travelling up between his nose and left eye and over his forehead.

Genji dropped to the ground like a ragdoll when Hanzo let him go. He brought a hand to his face to check the amount of blood pouring out of it. Before his fingers even came close to his injuries, he was picked up and thrown across the room. Hanzo picked up his sword and pierced it into Genji's abdomen.

Now it was all too much. Genji screamed at the state pain that consumed him from head to toe. He grabbed hold of the metal sticking out of his body in a fruitless attempt to remove it.

Hanzo took back his sword and practically hissed at his brother as he grabbed him by the neck.

"Get up!"

Genji was thrown against the wall one last time. A small splatter of blood that had soaked through the back of his clothes splattered against the low-hanging tapestry. The air being knocked out of his damaged lungs made him cough furiously and drop to the ground. Small drops of red escaped his mouth and flew to the ground. Hanzo lifted his sword over his head for the final time and brought it down at a speed that nearly rendered his arm a blur. The blade sliced through Genji's entire torso, including his entire right arm. The only thing preventing his body from splitting his body in two was a small patch of flesh on the lower left half of Genji's abdomen.

The horrific action was accompanied with the sickening sound of metal shearing against bone, skin, flesh and blood. Hanzo almost cringed at it. Genji would never know since he had slipped out of consciousness moments before it happened.

Hanzo breathed heavily as he took in what he had just done. He did it. He killed his brother. He had fulfilled his duty.

Only now was he finally realizing how much of a burden this was going to be.

"Guards!" Hanzo called, needing to direct his attention elsewhere for the moment. "Confiscate this man's weapons and take what is left of him and take it far off the premises. He is not worthy of a proper burial."

The three men didn't even question what they were ordered. They probably wouldn't question anything that their leader said for a long while, considering how he was carrying a bloody katana and a mutilated body laid beside him. It took a lot of effort, but the body was off the property in less than a minute. Other workers entered the scene to clean the floor and walls, but left the tapestry alone under Hanzo's command. He stood in the same place the whole time while the temple staff completed their tasks.

Hanzo was still furious at his brother. The whole clan was. Hanzo had obeyed the elders and took care of the liability that had lived among them all. He had done exactly as he was supposed to, for the better of everything that their family name stood for. Still, an unsettling knot brewed in his stomach and grew heavier by the second.

Hanzo briefly scanned the red blotches that stained the corner of the large white tapestry. It had become a new momento from the fight. One that would last for several years to come. He let out another battle cry as he slashed a line in the corner through the red liquid that blended in with the red border of the fabric. Hanzo sheathed his katana for the final time in his life and exited the temple. He didn't know how he would cope with this, but he knew that in time he'd learn how to. He still had much to learn, so what was one more thing?

Nonetheless, he did nothing to stop the small tears from falling.

* * *

 **Author's Note 2:**

 **Thank you for reading my take on the Hanzo vs. Genji fight scene. I tried to stay as close to the canon as possible, so I apologize if anything was off. This will not be a multi-chapter fic. I hope you enjoyed what you read!**

 ***Terrible Tracer impersonation voice* Take care, Loves!**


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